Archbishop of Kenya hits out at Justin Welby over breakdown of 'godly order'

ReutersArchbishop of Kenya Eliud Wabukala, left, is also chair of the conservative grouping, the Gobal Anglican Futures Conference, known as Gafcon.

The Archbishop of Kenya has hit out at the Archbishop of Canterbury after delegates from the Anglican Church of Kenya defied his authority to attend an Anglican meeting in Zambia this week.

He condemned the "infectious" rejection of moral and spiritual authority, the breakdown of "godly order" in the Anglican Communion and the failure of Archbishop Justin Welby to issue a public rebuke.

Archbishop Eliud Wabukala has also said that a letter stating the delegates would attend the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Lusaka is a forgery.

The Church of Kenya is one of four provinces that declared they would boycott the meeting in protest at the failure of the "consequences" imposed by Anglican primates in January to prevent the liberal US Episcopal Church attending. Nigeria, Uganda and the province of Jerusalem and the Middle East are the three provinces not in Lusaka this week.

"It is a matter of regret that this Church's delegation to the Anglican Consultative Council in Lusaka has been encouraged to disregard my spiritual counsel and attend this meeting," he said.

He noted that in January, the Primates meeting at Canterbury agreed to curtail the participation of the Episcopal Church of the United States in Anglican Communion bodies for a period of three years "in view of its formal adoption of same sex 'marriage'."

However, Bishop Tengatenga, the chairman of the council, had made clear to The Episcopal Church that its delegates were entitled to turn up and vote.

Archbishop Wabukala said: "Despite my public statement and my personal direction to them, the Kenyan delegation has informed me of their intention to be present, with air tickets purchased for them and assignments already given. It seems that the rejection of the moral and spiritual authority of the Primates by the ACC Chairman, without public rebuke from the Archbishop of Canterbury, has become infectious and is encouraging further breakdown of godly order in the Communion.

"The underlying cause of this particular problem, which is just one symptom among many, is the doctrinal confusion that has been allowed to take root in the Communion. The GAFCON movement, of which I am Chairman, is committed to the deep healing of the Anglican Communion by restoring the Bible to its rightful place among us and I remain entirely committed to that great cause."